Chapter 15

The man stood by the wide-open window at the end of the living room.

He must have been smoking.

At his feet, Lucky had transformed into a fawning dog, its tail wagging like a propeller.

It clearly wanted to express its joy at a long-awaited reunion.

But Liam didn't understand, only taking it for a silly dog.

I felt like I hadn't truly woken up.

As I considered closing my eyes again, the man by the window turned around.

Our eyes met, and my heart felt like it had been violently struck by a heavy object.

The scene was so familiar that I even started to fantasize that he and I were still 'us'.

Until Liam’s clearly distant voice broke the silence: “You’re awake.”

My consciousness slowly returned, and I began to confirm this wasn’t a hallucination.

I practically sprang from the couch, staring at him in disbelief:

“You… how did you get here? How did you get in?”

Liam explained calmly: “I needed to talk to you. I asked Captain Miller for your address.”

I started to wonder if I was losing my mind, or if he was.

“But how did you get inside?”

Liam extinguished the cigarette he was holding, then walked over and sat on the couch opposite me.

“When I arrived, the building manager was just muttering angrily as he left your place.

“He said you’d left the gas on, and you and the dog almost died in there. He even gave me a strange lecture.”

It was then that I suddenly remembered I had been boiling water for noodles in the kitchen before I fell asleep.

It must have been a gas leak, the smell spreading out, which is why the building manager came in.

The building manager probably still recognized Liam, so letting him in and even lecturing him made sense.

I tried hard to control my heart, which was pounding like a drum, and asked him, “What do you need to talk about?”